Masdar Smart City and Robotics - GineersNow Engineering Magazine Masdar: The Future of Sustainable City in Abu Dhab | Page 31

a
to
Pho
and the stakes are high:
autonomous weapons have
been described as the third
revolution in warfare, after
gunpowder and nuclear
arms.”
Hawkings
and
Musk
reiterated that mankind’s
biggest existential threat is
to develop an AI that could
spell the end of the human
race.
A few of the early examples
of machines that could hit
targets and kill without
any kind of human help
are drones, quadcopters
armed with weaponry, and
various military targeting
systems. However, that is
not the end of it, they are
edi
p
ker
pea
s
by:
just the beginning. With
the advancement of robotic
technology, more lethal
weapons are going to come
to the forefront to kill people
and wage wars against one
another.
According to roboticist Noel
Sharkey, the new world
robots will not look like the
ones we see in movies and
televisions. The killer robots
will probably look like the
autonomous machines that
we have now. According to
Sharkey, the machines will
almost look like the tanks, jet
fighters, or ships. The main
aim of the petitioners is to
stop the kill decision to be
given to machines.
An open letter from Future
of Life Institute summarizes
the ideologies of every
petitioner: “We believe that
AI has great potential to
benefit humanity in many
ways, and that the goal of
the field should be to do
so. Starting a military AI
arms race is a bad idea, and
should be prevented by a ban
on offensive autonomous
weapons beyond meaningful
human control.”
In the distant future, I hope
that mankind won’t have to
choose between the red pill
or the blue from Morpheus?
JULY 2016
Future Cities & Robotics
31